Martin Gilbert's sense of ambition isn't what it was. There was a time when you suspected the ruddy-faced fund management boss would acquire any business that moved in pursuit of rebuilding his empire.

How long until this spreads to the City? The New York Times reports that Occupy Wall Street has been a financial stimulus package of its own for the security industry. New York's bankers are signing up round-the-clock bodyguards and installing ever more elaborate home systems. One specialist security firm said it expects to more than double its revenue this year, thanks to the protests. After Bear Stearns collapsed, Goldman chief squid Lloyd Blankfein built a six-foot-high security gate outside his Hamptons house. And now protesters are waving placards depicting Blankfein's severed head on a stake. No wonder executives are rushing to supplement their internal security teams with the services of special external beefy blokes.

Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, today tried to tell investors that shares in his bank were unjustifiably underpriced even as European bank shares plunged and the price of insuring against them defaulting on their bonds soared.